Here’s a brief rundown of what’s on the docket for readings on the economy this week. Remember that Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen re-commited to low-rate policies last week, shrugging off a recent rise in inflation. Will the markets pick a fight with the Fed on the trajectory of the economy? It may depend on the readings we get this week:

This quarter is already the largest quarter for M&A since those heady days during the fourth quarter of 2007, reports MarketWatch’s Victor Reklaitis, citing Dealogic data from Friday. With M&A back, what does that mean for the bull market? He says two camps of dueling arguments are emerging, both of which take away different indicators from the M&A boom about whether stocks can rise further. Read more here.

“Rising for a second month, sales of existing homes grew 4.9% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. A strengthening labor market, expanding inventories and recent drops in mortgage rates are supporting sales, said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.”

MarketWatch’s Sara Sjolin caught up with Mark Mobius on the sidelines of a conference in Monaco. The emerging markets specialist sounded pretty bullish, recommending Nigeria and Russia as his big bets. Some background on the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group:

“Hosting a Sunday dinner at the exclusive Fairmont Hotel in Monte Carlo, the 77-year-old emerging-markets guru provided insight into his latest observations on the ever-changing environment for emerging markets. After more than 40 years in the game, he still gets excited about new developments in developing countries. But researching from a far is not a great option — many of the “next big thing” companies are unknown, so it takes lots of on-site digging to identity the most inspiring opportunities, he said.”

MarketWatch readers are reacting to that M&A story mentioned in the post here at 9:55 a.m. Eastern.

One reader writes the following about corporate weddings in an email to MW:

“All I know is that the mergers I have actually been a part of meant a lot less jobs. Much of the merging and acquisitions with others is to cut costs and to get innovation and technology that is further along and can often add to the bottomline. I do not like this trend.”

TIAA-CREF analysts believe believe a correction of up to 5%-10% is still possible once the S&P 500 breaches the 1,970 level.

“The odds of such a correction appear to have diminished, however, in light of very strong internal market dynamics. Rather than a correction, we could see the index mark time at these levels, perhaps with some rotations similar to those experienced in April and May. Regardless of short-term gyrations, we still see the S&P 500 exceeding 2,000 by year-end.”

The Australian dollar gained against the U.S. dollar Monday, getting a boost from data showing that China’s manufacturing sector has jumped back into expansion territory for the first time this year. The Aussie tends to react to Chinese data because China is a major trading partner for Australia.

The Reserve Bank of Australia, however, has said the Aussie is “high by historical standards,” so further positive data from China are likely to be weighed with comments from central bankers.

“Moving forward, dovish rhetoric out of RBA authorities may be one of the biggest fundamental risks for the Aussie,” Matthew Weller, senior technical analyst at Forex.com, wrote in a note.

Shares of Lululemon Athletica climbed 3.5% on Monday as founder Dennis “Chip” Wilson moved to take greater control of the yoga-apparel company.

Wilson, who had stepped down last month as chairman, is working with Goldman Sachs bankers to revamp the board and may even consider a buyout of the company, The Wall Street Journal reported. Wilson owns a 28% stake in Lululemon.

For those investors worried that the end of the bull market is nigh, S&P Capital’s Sam Stovall points out that this bull market has had a below-average number of new highs, suggesting it may have some gas left in the tank.

Stovall notes:

So far, this bull market has lasted 63 months. It recorded its first all-time high on 3/28/13, or 49 months after the bull market began. Through June 20, 2014, this bull market recorded 67 all-time highs, representing 5% of all trading days. This percentage is slightly more than the average of 4% for cyclical bulls, but substantially less than the average of 9% for secular bulls, and below the average of 7% for all bull markets. Finally, this bull market’s percentage of all-time highs is tied with the bull of 1970-73 for 6th place. So history would suggest, but not guarantee, that this bull market has many more new highs ahead of it before finally running out of steam.

As soccer fans around the world remain glued to their TV sets watching the FIFA World Cup, investors are keeping an eye on what Nike Inc. is doing in host country Brazil. The sportswear and equipment maker, which only entered the soccer business in 1994, is pushing aggressively to unseat soccer leader Adidas.

Gold futures notched their fourth straight win on Monday, adding $1.80 to settle at $1,318.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Geopolitical and technical factors combined last week to push gold futures above $1,300. But that could easily reverse, especially as summer tends to be a season of weak physical demand for gold, says Howard Wen, a commodities analyst at HSBC.

“These gains tend to be fast moving and you can…have prices break below $1,300 again as easily as it broke above it,” said Wen. HSBC has a year-end target of $1,292 an ounce for gold.

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